Dave Cousins & Brian Willoughby
1994-07-16 Northampton, Massachusetts Iron Horse Coffee House (M-SBD DAT)
First Set :::
01. --introduction & comments--
02. You Never Needed Water
03. --'The Hangman & The Papist' spoken intro--
04. The Hangman & The Papist
05. --tuning--
06. Grave New World
07. --tuning--
08. Sealed With A Traitor's Kiss
09. --tuning & 'Desert Song' spoken intro--
10. Desert Song
11. --'Ringing Down The Years' spoken intro (Sandy Denny story)---
12. Ringing Down The Years
13. --'A Glimpse Of Heaven' spoken intro--
14. A Glimpse Of Heaven
15. --'Grace Darling' spoken intro--
16. Grace Darling
Second Set :::
17. --introduction & "Joey & Me" spoken intro--
18. Joey & Me
19. --'Beside The Rio Grande' spoken intro--
20. Beside The Rio Grande
21. --tuning--
22. Beat The Retreat
23. --'Blue Angel' spoken intro--
24. Blue Angel
25. --tuning--
26. Ways & Means
27. --'Part Of The Union' spoken intro--
28. Part Of The Union
29. --'Lay Down' spoken intro--
30. Lay Down
Encore :::
31. --applause & 'Song For Alex' spoken intro--
32. Song For Alex
Total Time ::: 1:46:47
::: Stellar mono SBD. Check samples if of a dubious nature, or to sniff the roses before you have the whole bouquet.
::: Warts: NONE. No cuts, no dropouts, no dullspots - clean as a whistle!
::: Songs sequenced for "music only" listening with even numbered trax. Odd numbers are tuning & talking.
::: Duo incorrectly introduced as "The Strawbs" at the start (not how they were billed).
::: Touring to promote their 2nd, and then brand new, album, "The Bridge"; their first duo album since 1980's "Old School Songs".
::: Believe there was no opening act & only one show that evening.
::: Taped with permission of the artists.
Recording Information ::: mono soundboard -> Sony TCD-D3 portable digital audio tape recorder -> master 48kHz DAT.
Playback 2010-11-06 ::: master SBD 48kHz 120min DAT -> Tascam portable pro DAT recorder (model?) -> Tascam CD-RW900SL pro compact disc recorder -> 44.1KHz CD-RWs -> computer -> wavs.
Remastering 2015-12-xx ::: wavs -> Audacity (fades & volume adjustments only] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. First uploaded week of 2014-12-24.
Line-up ::: Dave Cousins - acoustic guitar, vocals // Brian Willoughby - acoustic lead guitar.
Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.
DimeTravel 077 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader, yrs truly! ::: Corrections welcome ::: Man, these DATs sure are easier recordings to work with than analog (when they still play without dropouts!). Only 3-4 hours of work for preparation (not including the original transfer time), instead of 12-15 (or more) for a lot of the analog tape transfers. No phase correction, offset problems, dropouts or dullspots, etc. makes life a LOT easier! If these fine folks need introduction to you, this is not a bad place to start for the duo material, of which there is relatively little around. You can of course (and should!) seek out some proper Strawbs material if you have not had that pleasure yet, but this one is a solid listen. You Strawbs aficionados should be "over the moon" (as you Brits are wont to say). Willoughby's lead guitar playing is spectacular, Cousins is in great voice & the songs speak for themselves. While I prefer the guitar tone on their fine 1979 "Old School Songs" live album, the set selection here is equally good (and double the length!), plus you get the full stories, and more importantly for me (and probably many of you will agree), I think Brian's playing is much better - he developed a LOT in 15 years of playing this material with the Strawbs! This is really a MOST pleasurable listen. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees
Support the artists! http://www.strawbsweb.co.uk -- http://www.craigandwilloughby.com -- http://www.witchwoodrecords.co.uk
Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!